Alluring Masquerade

Chapter 31 - The Art Of Flattery.

          Hira went downstairs and walked into the living-room, the dining table was ready. The delicious aroma of food was inviting her so strongly that her stomach gurgled. She stopped to think that she hadn't ate anything after Zach in the afternoon. How could she forget? Hira loved food.

          "No!" she cried dramatically and jokily. "Me and no food, make me angry!"

          "Don't ever try dramatics, sis," Hiba teased, her face blank as she set a bowl of hot curry on the table, "you'll never excel."

          "Ha – ha," Hira joked, laughing, and then she went into the kitchen. "Can I help?" she offered Alec.

          He was busily telling Hiba what else to take in order to the dining table. "Not really..." he answered distractedly, looking down at the utensils he was going through.

          "Are you sure you don't secretly want to be a chef?" she asked him.

          "Here take this, Hiba," he said, passing her spoons, knives and some other sort of cutlery Hira didn't know the names of. "Make sure you place them exactly as I taught you."

          Hiba nodded obediently and obeyed. She moved past her elder and into the living-room, all the while never taking her eyes off of the items in her fists. She was mentally going through the order she was supposed to put them on the table in.

          "Oh, did you remember the glasses?" he asked after her, worried. He sighed in relief when he got a positive response, when he noticed a shocked Hira. "With flattery, she's very suggestible," he explained, laughing heartedly.

          "Wow, you've barely known her for some time and you've figure out a way to control her," she thought out loud, "that's just ... genius."

          "It's actually not that difficult," he said, his attention caught the freshly baked bread. He picked each round, baked globule and diagonally sliced them into thick slices. Then he piled them onto a large, flat plate with some margarine.

          "Ah..." she nodded, as if she knew. "Well, you've got to teach me that. Because she never listens unless you threaten to throw away her clothes or some stupid thing like that." She huffed.

          "Unless you're a guy I don't think your flattery will work," he chuckled, busily chopping up carrots.

          "What's that supposed – Oh!" Hira's cheeks burned in embarrassment. What, does Hiba like him? she thought silently, watching Alec move onto tomatoes. Wow, he's a fast chopper.

          "What else, Alec?" Hiba asked, appearing beside him suddenly.

          Hira studied her little sister; her cheeks were flushed and she was wearing extra make-ups, plus, she was dressed up in her sexiest clothing. The dress was a baby pink and barely down to her knees, with black lacing that was tied around her waist. She was even wearing high-heels. What in the world does she think she'd doing? she thought. Perhaps I'll have to asked her that myself.

          "What do you think of my dress, Alec?" she gushed. "Cute, isn't it?"

          "Cute," he replied distantly, making a design out of a piece of melon with a strange gadget.

          "Oh, I know, I know!" Hiba cried happily.

          "Take that plate of bread over to the table, would you please?" he asked nicely.

          Hira frowned amusingly at her sister's antics and crossed her arms. "I'll help you take the jug," she offered and took the container with her, hurrying after Hiba.

          "Hey, that's–" Alec called after her, "...empty."

          However, Hira didn't hear him and was oblivious to the empty container in her hands. "Here, some water," she said, blindly leaving the empty jug, in front of her mother Davina, on the table. All of her attention was on her sister and she was wondering what she was up to, although, she already had a good idea. She took her sister away from the table, out of the living-room and into the small hallway.

          "What's wrong with you?" Hiba cried, frowning.

          "Me?" Hira asked. "What wrong with you?" She pointed past her sister's shoulder to Alec, who was now bringing the two plates of salads over to the table.

          "Wha'?" Hiba asked warily.

          Hira's height didn't help Hiba get anymore intimated than she already was, but she was glad some of it was working. "Alec is not to be messed around with, little sis. It won't work between you and him," she said, trying to be gentle.

          "What do you know about him?" Hiba demanded, narrowing her eyes. "He might like me!"

          Hira shook her head sadly, as if the answer was obvious. "Sis, climb down from the ninth cloud, and look at him from here," she said moving her sister in view of the kitchen. "He's so older than you and you're a high school student!" she finished.

          Hiba scoffed. "Age doesn't matter," she retorted dramatics.

          "That's not always true," she reasoned, or tried to. "And stop that melodramatic stuff with your hands! My scarf is not something to play around with." She took the scarf that her sister was twirling around with away from her.

          "Ah, the art of dramatics, sis," Hiba sighed as if she was explaining to a five year old, "Love sees no age."

          "Yes, it can, it has eyes," Hira said in a bored tone, her eye-lids slightly heavy to the given effect. "Especially when it's concerning with you right now. You're only deciding on what you want your eyes to see.. You concern me some times. Scratch that, all the time."

          "You worry too much," Hiba replied, waving a dismissive hand and walked away.

          "Maybe mum should, too, then!" Hira cried. I'll have to tell off Alec as well, not to friggin' encourage her! she thought.

          "I should, too, do what?" Their mother asked from the dining table.

          Hira's face turned blank as she stared into vase of roses to her left. "I'm going kill everything tonight," she muttered gloomily.